So I’m back……with a vengeance! I’ve been away from posting about all my flying experiences but there have been some pretty big changes so let’s get caught up. Firstly, today I received a signed document stating that I am Night Rated and can now legally fly at Night!
The training was great and actually quite enjoyable, I have a bunch of excuses why it took me ALMOST TWO YEARS to do something that many do in a week or two. But it’s now done and I can put a stamp on it. I feel great so great in fact that I decided that I would take Rica up tonight to celebrate with a beautiful view of the city lights. I think that there is something magical about lifting above the city into the dark and seeing all of mankind below you. I also understand it’s a powerful aphrodisiac. ;)
So I checked the weather….
For the non geeks that says “it’s nice with a bit of a crosswind” The forecast said…
Which says “it’s about to get pretty nasty out with strong winds and light rain”
Enroute to the airport I called for a briefing and the weather man basically told me that I’d not want to be up flying tonight anywhere near midnight and that it was quite windy above. I said thanks and decided that if we flew at all it’d be a couple of circuits or a short hop to Gatineau. I checked the amazing co-pilot app and it showed the winds at 45KT at 1200′! hmmmm, that’s quite a bit of wind shear to deal with. I half decided that we would likely stay on the ground.
We went to the aircraft anyways, Rica had not been aboard since Jan 22 and we pre flighted as a Cessna 172 taxied out and took off. My mind said “well HE made it…” The aerodrome was almost still with the windsock hanging limp, only slightly indicating the evil broiling only 600 feet above. I noticed during my walk around that the rear position light was out, I tapped the rudder and it came on. I tapped again, it stayed on. So I gave it a good couple more and it didn’t flicker a bit so we went on and taxied out to the runway. The mind said “two strikes does not make three…”
As we rotated into the climb you could already see the twinkle of lights below and Rica was about to say how neat it looked when we hit the shift. The stall horn went off momentarily and then we were rocking and rolling every which way. I wasn’t scared at all, it was raw focus. I have flown what seems like a million patterns so I did as we do. I flew the pattern, while Rica marveled at the lights.
Climbing up to circuit height I could feel the airplane drifting madly to the left. I compensated to the right until I was looking forward, out the left corner of the windscreen. To see the runway, you just had to look out the front window! My little Piper was cocked into that wind a good 45 degrees just to keep it on course. I saw my landing point abeam (or was that ahead?) and pulled the throttle. As we glided down it was not easy to keep any real steady path, more updrafts and downdrafts than anything I just worked the yoke and tried to keep my speed right. I approached the runway and knew it would die down but it didn’t. I simply worked the yoke all the way down to about 20 feet then nailed a really sweet landing.
Rica loved it, the whole flight had a lot of spirit. Best 0.3 yet. Guess I’ll have to wait for this weather to clear to find out about the other thing!